Join Ash Kolodner as they celebrate the launch of their book ‘Gayface’
These photographic diptychs of LGBTQ+ people in America express the acute vulnerability of coming out
From 2011 to 2015, Brooklyn-based photographer Ash Kolodner (born 1987) traveled across the United States photographing hundreds of LGBTQ+ individuals of all ages. They made two consecutive portraits of each of their subjects, photographing them twice during the same sitting: once with eyes closed and then with eyes open. These diptychs symbolize the vulnerability many have felt at the outset of discovering their personal identities, and then the realization and self-actualization manifest in the intimate and profound process of coming out.
Through more than 180 color portraits, along with subject interviews and contributing texts by filmmaker Kimberly Peirce and Tony award-winning producer Jordan Roth, and icon and performer, RuPaul, Gayface reflects the beauty, intimacy and sometimes the pain of a community kept in the shadows for decades. Ultimately these pictures and this handsome volume represent a revelatory statement on the profound humanity we all share.
Ash Kolodner was born in Washington, DC, and holds a BFA in commercial photography from the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara and an MFA in photography from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Their first major project, GAYFACE 1st Class, in 2013, is a series of more than 500 portraits of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals living in America. Their follow-up series, Showing Face, was exhibited across Philadelphia’s subway stations and billboards in 2016 as part of the Philadelphia Mural Arts program. As a commercial photographer, they have photographed artists and musicians including Nas, Damien Marley, Mayer Hawthorne and Nipsey Hustle. Kolodner's work, which ranges from photography to drawing to sculptural installations, has been featured in numerous magazines, newspapers, galleries and group shows, including Miami Beach Art Basel, Toronto Fashion Week, Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Project, Huffington Post, Curve magazine and Photographer’s Forum.
About the author:
Ash Kolodner is a multi-disciplinary artist who received their BFA in commercial photography at Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, CA and later earned a master's degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Born and raised in Washington D.C., their work spans various media, including photography, painting, sculpture and installation.
With a focus on portraiture, Ash’s work often explores themes of identity and the queer community. Their recent book, Gayface, features diptych portraits of individuals from across the United States, capturing the complexity and vulnerability of their subjects through the use of closed and open eyes. In addition to this, their series of sculptures-turned-works on paper, Plantikins, challenges traditional notions of human-environment interaction through the creation of half-plant, half-human forms.
Throughout their career, Ash’s work in front of the camera has been featured as much as their work behind it. Their personal journey from androgynous model—posing for various ad campaigns and magazines, including Elle, Nylon and Marie Claire—has paralleled their evolution as an artist. Ash’s work is not just an expression of their art, but also a reflection of their own journey of self-discovery. Identifying as non-binary, they explore their transgender sexuality in a forthcoming series of explicit linocuts.